Émilie Breton, Montréal, Québec, Canada
At the annual conference this year, the association had the great pleasure to again welcome Li Ding and his wife, Antonia, to review and refine Tang Shou Tao members’ practice of Jingluo Qigong. Patients and students also had the privilege of getting treatment from this eighty-three-year-old medical practitioner, receiving the delicate healing touch of a man who dedicated his life to Chinese medicine. This year was a special moment in the history of the practice of this form in the association: Seven members received an instructor certificate in Jingluo Qigong.
The journey started a long time ago when Vince Black learned the form while working at a hospital in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, China. At the time, he wasn’t able to find the creator of the form, but he was nevertheless able to bring it back and share it with his students and apprentices. The practice of Jingluo Qigong became a basic prerequisite to participate in Vince Black’s clinic, allowing people to learn and feel the jingluo map in their body and to harmonize their energy before doing treatments.
Over the years, Tang Shou Tao members grew to appreciate how precious and precise this form is for those who want to learn the jingluo pathways and understand the principles of Chinese medicine by experiencing it. As stated by Ethan Murchie in an article he wrote for the Montreal school’s blog,1 Jingluo Qigong is a real treasure to the world. Many instructors throughout the association have brought the form to their schools, their clinics, to students of gongfu and Chinese medicine, as well as to the general public.
Finding Li Ding in Buenos Aires, Argentina and inviting him to our annual conferences, was a big step in the history of the Jingluo Qigong. After the first surprise of seeing an entire group practicing his creation, Li Ding shared his views on the practice of the form, including both the movements and the spirit joining them. Through these moments of gathering since finding him, members have been able to diligently receive and integrate changes to the form as wished by our teacher, who has also refined some movements over the years. At the conference in August, he reminded us to refer to him as Daifu by explaining to Marc Melton, whose presence made the process of translation easier this year, that Daifu is the name given to Taiyuan doctors. Students started enthusiastically to call him Li Daifu, in recognition of his support, advice and participation in the association’s broad range of activities.
The possibility of having Li Daifu’s words directly translated from Chinese to English, while he taught as well as during clinic time, made a big difference in our capacity to exchange on a wide range of topics with this remarkable man.
From the beginning, Li Daifu has expressed his desire to make an official process of certification through which Tang Shou Tao instructors can carry on the preservation and teaching of Jingluo Qigong. Li Daifu has been sharing this form for many years and over three continents—Asia, Europe and America—and his experience has shown him the necessity of having a certification process with specific requirements.
After multiple meetings and discussions concerning the requirements for and process of certification on various trips made by Li Daifu and association members to Buenos Aires, Tucson and Montreal, this year saw the accomplishment of his desires. It was a very important moment for those Jingluo Qigong practitioners who received an official recognition from the creator of the form. This was the first official step for the association, as more instructors and practitioners of the form will be certified in the coming years. For those who are interested in contributing to the dissemination of the form by teaching it, you can talk to your local instructor and write a letter of intention to the chairman of the TCM committee. This last visit was a new step for the association and for Li Daifu, and is just the beginning of a new set of efforts to give this marvelous tool the attention it deserves.
1. Ethan Murchie, “Dr Li Ding’s Jingluo Qigong, a Treasure for the world,” Montreal Gongfu Research Center, August 27, 2018, http://www.montrealgongfu.com/en/dr-li-dings-jingluo-qigong-a-treasure-for-the-world.
